"People have to realise this is going to take years of therapy." He said that Ms Dugard has been having "the happiest time of her life" bonding with her mother, Terry, and half-sister Shayna, 19.

It has been a tougher adjustment for Ms Dugard's daughters.

The family is in hiding as police investigate the possibility that Garrido may be behind a string of sex killings.

Ms Dugard's aunt is said to have told a friend that despite their long seclusion, the girls "know the alphabet and how to draw".

The daughters never went to school, although they were taught by Garrido. "But they have no clue about history, politics, geography — nothing," added the aunt.

Police sources said the girls lived in Garrido's house in Antioch, northern California, with him and his wife, while Ms Dugard was forced to live in a tent in the hidden garden compound.

"Jaycee was treated like a Cinderella who was kept out of sight and made to work and do the chores," said one officer involved in the investigation."

It also emerged that Garrido, 58, was so confident of keeping his secret that he even used Ms Dugard's photograph on business cards.

Antioch recycling centre boss Maria Christenson said Garrido gave her a card a decade ago.

"I am told it was a picture of Jaycee, although I can't be sure because I have never seen her," she said.

"He told me that his daughter did all his designs but he never brought her to the centre with him."

As fury grows over the decision to release Garrido after serving 11 years of the 50-year sentence he was given in 1977 for rape and kidnapping, a hand-written note revealed his attempts to persuade a judge he was rehabilitated.

Garrido wrote the letter a year into his sentence, blaming drugs for his downfall.

He wrote: "I am so ashamed of my past. But my future is now under control. I have set my goals and find myself well on my way. If I may please, all I ask is to be given the chance."